The Walking Dead Episode 5: No Time Left Shows How Powerful Episodic Gaming Can Be

So this is it! After debuting in early April, each episode of The Walking Dead has continued to impress and gain momentum leading up to this final entry. If you were worried about Telltale Games coming up short in Episode 5: No Time Left let me put your worries asided now. The Walking Dead tugs at your heartstrings in so many ways as it provides one of the most memorable entertainment experiences of 2012.

Episode 4 of the Walking Dead was a filler episode, a lead-up to this one moment. Episode 5 picks up right up where it left off. Lee has been bitten and is desperately searching for Clementine, who has been taken. Making matters worse is the zombie infestation has now infested Savannah. The stakes have never been higher in The Walking Dead, and that’s why it shines.

Episode 5 doesn’t lie to you with where the story is going. These are Lee’s final moments, and the pacing couldn’t be more hectic. We're forced to make major decisions that drastically change your story experience. In one section, you’re quickly giving orders to your group and cutting off zombie arms to help seal yourself from hordes of undead.

When the pacing slows down we see a side of Lee that we haven’t seen before. We see a man desperate to paint a better picture of his current situation, but we know that it’s a short-term solution. It’s here that we learn more about Omid and Krista, characters that haven’t received a lot of screen time until now. Every choice that we’ve made up to this point, all the relationships you have formed will come back and play a huge role in this episode. In previous episodes, we would get references to what happened, but they never played a huge role. Here, previous conversations like how you saved Duck at the farm or what you told Clementine resurface. It's refreshing and helps tie a bow on season one of The Walking Dead.